Hi Rob it's Scott. Hey I was thinking of taking out my old distributor and replacing it with the rebuilt one I got from Advanced Dist People up in Minn. I've never done anything like that, though. Searching around, it doesn't look too too difficult. Any tips or tricks? You can probably do this in your sleep. I want to learn to work on my tii more, so this would be a "stretching assignment". Scott in Cincy PS Car is '72 tii euro version w/Crane 700
Scott: To replace the distributor: --Set the engine, exactly or approximately, to top dead center (TDC). The quickest easiest way to do this by removing the cap of the distributor and rotating the engine until the rotor is pointing to where #1 plug wire fires, which is noted by a notch on the upward-facing flat part of the circumference of the distributor, underneath where the cap clamps on. It's easy to find if you trace plug wire #1 back to the cap so you see which one it is, then pull off the cap and look for the little notch. You can rotate the engine by putting it in neutral and rotating the fan blades, putting pressure on the fan belt to keep it tight, or by putting a socket and handle on the crankshaft, or by putting the car in gear and rocking it. If you're thoroughly flummoxed by the notch, you can look for the TDC timing mark through the indicator hole in the transmission bell housing (it's the notch, not the ball, and this is really the best most accurate way to verify TDC, but we're not trying to get it exact at this point, just in the ball park), or you can pull the valve cover and eyeball when #1 is at TDC by seeing when the two cam lobes for #4 are "overlapped," meaning they're pushing their respective rocker arms open by equal amounts. --Pull off the push-on connector to the condenser. --Loosen the 10mm nut and bolt at the base of the distributor and, with the cap off to gain you clearance to the firewall and cowl, draw the distributor upward. You may need to spread the slot in the collar at the distributor's base slightly apart with a screwdriver. Note that when you pull the dizzy out, the rotor is going to rotate, I believe to the left, as the gear at the bottom of the dizzy pulls off the worm gear at the end of the camshaft. --Installation is the reverse of removal, with the following caveats: --It's easier to put the points in and set the preliminary gap with the dizzy out of the car, but you'll need to tweak it with the dizzy in the car. --There's an oil seal (rubber o-ring) midway down the dizzy's body. Lubricate it with engine oil before installing the dizzy. You may REALLY need to spread the collar nut apart with a screwdriver and push down hard on the dizzy to get the oil seal past the collar nut. --Install and line up the rotor to the notch for #1. Remember that the rotor will turn the opposite way (right, I think) when you push the dizzy down and the gear at the bottom meshes with the cam gear. Of course, once it's in, you can simply rotate the body of the dizzy around so the rotor lines up with the little notch, and as long as the wiring harness' push-on connector reaches the condenser and the vacuum diaphragm doesn't hit anything (oh but yours is an early tii so there is no vacuum diaphragm) it really doesn't matter at all how the dizzy is rotated, but I and other people like to put the dizzy in so that the screw that holds down the points is accessible with a flat-bladed screwdriver, so the point gap and thus the dwell can be tweaked with the dizzy in the car (actually, for this reason, I like to ditch the points in favor of Pertronix, but others disagree, and I digress). This usually requires installing the dizzy, seeing where the rotor swings around to, lifting the body of the dizzy partway up so the gear at the bottom is no longer engaged with the cam gear, rotating the rotor to where you think it should go, putting it back down, seeing if the rotor winds up in the right place, etc. Through trial and error, you can get it so that the rotor is at #1 and the points screw isn't blocked by the edge of the cowl. --If you've done this, of course all you've done is eyeballed the timing so it's close to where it was before you took it out. --Verify that the car starts and runs. --Use a dwell meter and verify that the dwell is about 60 degrees. Adjust the point gap accordingly. If the dwell is too high, the point gap should be made bigger; too low and the point gap should be made smaller. It is the dwell reading that is important; the physical gap is just the means of achieving the proper dwell. (Or, as I said, install a Pertronix so you never need to do this again.) --The car should now be timed using a timing light. For a tii, I believe it's the timing ball (25 degrees BTDC) at 2400 RPM. Good luck! You know were to find me if you run into trouble... Rob
Wow this is great, Rob. A couple of clarifying Qs. > My current distributor has the Crane ignition...do I have to swap anything over to the rebuilt distributor? Are there parts under the cap that my rebuilt distributor isn't going to have that I need to swap over? I don't have to worry about points and dwell, I don't think. >Where is the rubber o ring? Sounds like it is in that collar on the motor? I don't see it on my newly rebuilt distributor. >What's the deal on the oiling of the felt pad? I pulled the top piece ("rotor" I believe) off the shaft of the rebuilt distributor, and saw one felt pad - put some oil on it and put the rotor back on. Is there more to it than that? Thanks again...I may attempt this next weekend. That would be huge. Scott
